How to Machine Quilt

Machine quilting is a really great way to quilt your quilt. It can be fairly fast and once you become comfortable with it, you can do all sorts of fantastic wreaths, feathers, and flowers - let your imagination go wild! One of the great benefits of machine quilting is its durability. Tied quilts eventually fall apart and you don't want to machine wash a hand quilted quilt. With machine quilting, you can wash and dry it. Simple!

There are two basic types of machine quilting: straight line and free-motion. Straight line is done using a walking foot (Pfaff machines don't use a walking foot) while free-motion uses a darning foot.

Straight Line Quilting with a Walking Foot

In the following examples, I used white fabric to demonstrate the stitching rather than the Tumbling Squares baby quilt. You will be able to better see the thread and different stitches against the white fabric.

	With your walking foot, you can do simple, straight quilting lines. These are great for stitch-in-the-ditch quilting where you quilt along the seams of your pieced quilt top.
	After you do your straight lines, you can turn the quilt and add more lines in a diamond or checkerboard pattern. This is really great to fill in large areas or the centers of quilted wreaths.

Free-Motion Quilting with a Darning Foot

The key to successful free-motion quilting is relax! If your shoulders are too tight and tense, you will not have good results. Put on some relaxing music, send the kids (or your husband!) outside, and take a couple of deep breaths. My mom always said this is the "Zen of Quilting". Find a happy place, and let the stitches flow, young grasshopper!

	Put your darning foot on the sewing machine and lower the feed dogs(those teeth like things under the presser foot). Then, make a frame with your hands, gently pulling and smoothing the fabric without putting a lot of pressure on it.
	Gently start to move the fabric, keeping your movements and the speed of the needle constant. Try to avoid crossing your stitch lines. Move in gentle loops like you are making puzzle pieces. This is called stippling.
	Add some stars or flowers among your stipple stitches.
	Try making loop-de-loops with your darning foot. These are a lot of fun and go quickly. Try varying the sizes to see what effects you get.
	Change your stitch pattern and make them long and narrow. This is a great effect for water or tree bark in pictorial quilts.

For the Tumbling Squares quilt, I used a loop-de-loop free-motion quilting design. With the busy fabrics in the quilt, I wanted to keep the quilting simple so it did not distract from the patterns.